Little 500

Again this year, I decided to go to the Little 500 bicycle race at Indiana University. Nick decided he would rather go golfing, so I went with my friends Todd, Sylvia, Jessica and Tim. It was much nicer this year - sunny and 80 degrees. Last year was raining/snowing and 30 degrees! The same team won again this year - the Cutters. But we were just happy to have gotten a sun tan instead of frostbitten fingers! I included one picture from last year just so you can see the difference! (By the way, it's not alcohol in the glasses, Vitamin Water corporation gives away small samples of their water every year :) )

Swim Meet

As the new President of VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity), I organized a volunteer trip to the School for the Blind in Indianapolis. They were hosting the regional swim meet, and they needed people to help time and run the meet. It was amazing to see so many junior high and high school students motivated to do their best and swim for their respective state. There were students from Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and maybe a few other states. Mostly, they swam just like any seeing person would. Some of them were not allowed to dive off the starting blocks and had to start in the pool because the sudden increase in pressure from diving in wouldn't be good for their eyes. The lane dividers helped make sure they were swimming straight, and the coaches helped them determine when they were getting close to the edge of the pool by tapping them on the back with a tennis ball on a stick. It was a great and inspiring experience! We are planning to help with their track meet next fall!

Update on Kinnick and Nick

Just wanted to give you an update on Nick and Kinnick. Nick had a few uncomfortable days, and did stay home from work one day, but his shingles is finally looking better. He is well on the road to recovery and I don't think he will have any scars.

Kinnick on the other hand, will definitely have a scar. He got his stitches out this week, and it looked like the bite/tear would heal just fine, but the next morning we noticed that he must have scratched at the scab, and it was open again. Another visit to the vet (this time our local vet), and she agreed it needed to be re-stitched. Since the healed edges would heal back together, she had to cut away to expose fresh tissue and re-clean the wound. Since it takes awhile and there are risks associated with sedating dogs, Dr. Jones asked if she thought I could keep Kinnick distracted if she just did a local anesthetic. The vet tech brought me a bag of treats, and Kinnick sat perfectly still eating treats out of my hand while Dr. Jones cleaned the wound, cut new edges, and re-stitched it. Hopefully these stitches do a better job!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Hope everyone else had a little more mild Easter than we did...Nick had been complaining about his head hurting for a few days before Easter, but I didn't think much about it, I just figured he had a headache. But while we were getting ready for Easter church, I noticed that Nick had a rash on his forehead. I thought it looked like shingles, so after some Internet research, we decided we were pretty sure it was indeed shingles. Since it is important to treat shingles early, but it is not contagious (except for small babies and immune suppressed individuals), we went to church anyways, and Nick just sat on the end row and didn't go near any babies. Then we left and immediately went to the PromptCare to get medication for Nick. Sure enough, he does have shingles! Unusual for someone his age, but with early treatment it should resolve well. We got some lunch, and decided to take the dogs to the dog park at Griffy Lake to run and play. They had a great time, and we were hosing them off outside our apartment when Nick noticed Kinnick had a big hole on his left side behind his shoulder. It was big enough that I could fit three fingers in it, and it was bleeding some. I thought back and remembered that a terrier had jumped up on Kinnick nipping at him and Kinnick had snapped at the terrier. I yelled at Kinnick thinking he had overreacted. But the terrier probably got his tooth caught and ripped a good sized hole in Kinnick's side. Of course it was Easter Sunday and no vets were open, except the emergency vet in Indianapolis. Nick was feeling pretty worn down from the shingles by this point, so I took Kinnick to Indianapolis to get the wound cleaned out and he got three stitches. As you can tell - it was an eventful Easter for us!

Scavenger Hunt

A tradition in optometry school is the annual Scavenger Hunt. As second year students, we take a big exam called the competency exam in January. During this exam we have to perform an eye exam on a randomly assigned first year student with a doctor watching and grading us. If you pass the competency test, it is one step closer to starting summer clinic as a third year. In celebration of passing competency, the third years plan the Scavenger Hunt for the second years. During the scavenger hunt the second years form teams and are given clues. You get a photo clue and a location clue. For the photo clue, you must determine what location/item the clue is talking about and get a picture of your whole group with that item or at that place. Then you must decipher the second clue and figure out what location the third years are waiting at. The locations are usually bars, and if you show up at the correct bar with the photo clue - you get points. Then there is usually a wacky optometry related challenge at the bar - such as throwing a ping pong ball into a bucket while wearing really strong powered glasses, or identifying high school pictures of our current professors. My team was called PALs, which is a good name because we are friends, but PALs also stands for Progressive Addition Lenses, so it is optometry related as well. We made team shirts, and the first photo here is the picture we put on our shirts. Our team members were: Kyle King and Julayne Miller (back standing), Sylvia Mishoulam, Eric Weigel (laying), and me, and in front Tim Hobbs, Lezlie Jones, and Carl Harder. Of course we all brought our significant others, so it ended up to be a pretty big group! There are a few pictures here that we took for the photo clues. Overall it ended up to be a super fun night! Can't wait until we get to plan Scavenger Hunt for next year's second years!